tennessee

the weekend before easter, we made a whirlwind trip to tennessee for shannon's wedding!

we went back and forth with whether or not to take jillian, but decided since it was easter weekend, and we were going to try and make it back to church on sunday, it would be much happier for everyone involved if she stayed with the nelsons. (and i'm sure she had much more fun there!)

we left on friday at 5am and made the 10 hour drive. ("we" driving = kyle driving).

on the way, we saw the casey jones museum and village, so we had to stop. it was a little general store, restaurant, and ice cream shop, but kyle said it was really just a glorified cracker barrel. we did buy jillian one of those wooden train whistles, and it says "little toot" on it. seemed fitting!



we made it to our hotel in nashville that afternoon, and took a nap before going out to dinner.

we spent most of the evening around the vanderbilt campus, it has the cutest little shops, and open air restaurants, so we ate dinner there, and lunch the next day.

after dinner we went and saw (drove by) the grand ole opry. then walked through downtown nashville, which was fun to see.



on saturday, we found a cupcake shop called "gigi's cupcakes" so we knew we had to get beth some for keeping jillian all weekend. (gigi is her grandma name..and she does love a good cupcake!) then we got to the wedding and they had gigi's cupcakes for their wedding cake! too funny! needless to say, one giant cupcake a day was enough for me!


saturday was gorgeous weather and the perfect day for an outdoor wedding. the wedding was in some family friend's backyard, and it was so pretty!

{love this picture of shannon and her dad!}

{bride and groom}

{love the simple 'pom poms'. i told shannon that was going to make some to
decorate our next nursery if it's another girl!}

{you may kiss the bride}

{and they lived happily every after!}

{us after the wedding, no.2 came along, and this was the first time i was
noticeably pregnant..to me, at least!}

after the wedding, we left for the long drive home at 6pm. hannah and alison rode with us, and kyle drove the whole way again!

we reminisced on old days for 10 hours straight, laughed until we cried, and even sang some songs from children's choir! good times!

we crawled into bed at 5am and we so so sleepy! but it was well worth the trip!

neither one of us had ever been to tennessee, but we really liked it, and i think we'll go back!

easter weekend 2011

we had a very crazy easter weekend!

on friday, kyle and i left at 5am for tennessee to go to shannon wight's (a good friend from school) wedding. jillian stayed home with the nelsons. we felt it would be cruel to make her drive 20 hours in 2 days!

we loved tennessee and the wedding! (but more on that later)

while we were at the wedding, the nelsons had their easter fun, so jillian had fun with them. they texted us pictures and said she loved hunting eggs!

we drove home on saturday night, and climbed into bed at 5am! yes, 5am. we were tired. we didn't even go home, we just crashed at the nelsons, where jillie was.

we then very slowly crawled out of bed at 9am. (we really really didn't want to miss church).

the 3 of us surprisingly made it to church on time!

{baby no.2 was there too! showing up a little earlier than i remember no.1 showing, btw!}

after church we made a quick trip to see all the nelsons who were in town and we'd missed all weekend.

then we had lunch at my parents and the kids hunted easter eggs.

{papa helping get her bunny ears all straight}

{us in all our craziness, all the cameras are kinda funny}

{this is how she carried her basket the whole time, so cute!}

jillian was serious business about hunting eggs!


i was shocked how good she was at just a year old.

{getting some pointers from daddy}

she would scope it out, put her basket down, and make a beeline for a few eggs, then bring them back to her basket. she filled it in no time, and we didn't help her at all!

i didn't get a picture of all the kids, but here's a few..

{andrew got some gummy teeth in on of his eggs}

{izzie getting her hunt on}

{haylie bug}

{looks like dellie was considering sharing with papa}

{she's just as happy with the eggs, as she is what's inside!}

{checking out her loot, once we came inside to cool off!}

and here we are easter weekend, last year. i was 41 weeks pregnant, and got induced at 5 am on monday morning!
crazy how much changes in just a year!

a whole year!

jillian is a year old.

she is not a toddler, though.

just a year old, walking baby.

last week was the most hectic/busy week we have had in a very long time!

we showed our house twice last week, so we had to keep it spotless, and we had my birthday and jillian's birthday. and every night we had plans doing one thing or another.

her birthday party was saturday evening. we just did super simple, with our families at our house. and it was a perfect little party!

the morning of her birthday, we let her have a powdered donut. i tried to get a picture, but she devoured it before i could! and immediately started crying when it was gone!

before her party, we tried to have a little photoshoot, but guests started to arrive.

{here is where she saw my parents come into the backyard}

{this makes me laugh so hard! she accidentally hiked it up.}

we had hamburgers and cupcakes, and i actually did not take a single picture of the table, decorations, cupcakes, anything! i couldn't believe it. we also didn't video singing happy birthday. i think we broke serious first birthday rules.


{isn't this just the picture of patience?}

{she definitely likes cupcakes!}


she got a "bike" which she just hopped on and started riding!


a baby and stroller, which has already been pushed many miles!

izzie and jillian both had a cup of ice and just went and sat in the empty kiddie pool, eating their ice and talking about something!


and tons of other super cute things (too much!) every gift she opened she just wanted to go play with it, so i basically had to hold her down to open them!

here's her birthday banner and cupcakes after the party. her banner is still up, but i don't want to take it down just yet!

we had so much fun with all family just hanging out! thanks everyone for making it special and fun!

eleven months!

our baby girl is actually going to be one year old next week! oh my!

i thought if i held this post off, then maybe it would give me a little longer!

her pictures were a tad difficult to capture this month.

the girl does not stop moving!!

i would get her in the chair, give her a cheerio, grab my camera..

and she would already be climbing out of the chair, on the floor, and outta the room.


camera down.

run get her.

put her back in chair.

repeat x 50ish pictures!


which apparently she thought was a hilarious game.

and i'm no newbie to this.

i have a serious system down.

i waste no time.

she just wastes less time than me!

{mischief anyone!?}

she is walking everywhere! crawling is no more.

she took her first steps right at 10 months, but didn't really take off full force until right at 11 months.

everyone told me i would dread the day she took off, and i will say, i think i actually like it better than crawling. she's still not quite as fast (that will change soon.)

and her clothes and toes of shoes are not completely filthy and worn out every day!

so yeah, walking agrees with us. for now.

that's the only big change this month.

but more than that, i need to get off the computer and work on her birthday invitations that should be mailed, oh, tomorrow!

so we're outta here!

bring on summer!

i have been soo excited for summer this year!

last year jillian was just a tiny baby, and even though we took her to the beach, it still kinda hindered what all we could do.

well, this year she is already loving all things summer!

i've been telling kyle since she was born, i can't wait until she is big enough to play in the water sprinklers!

we played in the sprinklers hours every day of summer when we were little! i think my parents decided they may actually save on the water bill if they put in a pool! so we got one of those later!
{barely getting sprinkled at this point, but having a blast! i love her face!}

{getting a little braver}

{all in! she made this face, every time it sprayed her in the face, but she still liked it}



i love watching her have this much fun!

after we went inside, she carried her swim suit around with her. i think she likes it!

it's gonna be a good summer.

t.r.o.u.b.l.e.

we have started working on getting our house ready to sell. {oh yeah, we bought a house, and are moving, by the way}.

so jillian helped with the pantry.


is that not the most mischievous face!?


making her getaway!


{the picture quality is quite terrible, but it was dark and i had to catch her quick!}

pizza pizza!!

we had pizza the other night, and decided to scrape the cheese off, and let have jillian have a bite. she ended up eating a whole piece of pizza!


and she enjoyed it quite a bit.


she'll fit in our family nicely.


i think she likes it.


like, a lot!